What Does Jared Lee Loughner Believe?
This March 2010 photo shows a man identified as Jared L. Loughner at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books in Tucson, Ariz.
/ AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Mamta PopatJared Lee Loughner, the young man who allegedly shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six others in Tucson on Saturday, would seem to defy easy categorization. Yet the evidence does provide clues into the mind of a man who even the staunchest partisans should be able to agree held muddled politics far outside the mainstream.
It seems clear based on Loughner's YouTube videos and MySpace page that he held a grudge against the U.S. government - and that he had had become obsessed with Giffords, the local embodiment of that government. Start with his reading list: As Mark Potok of the Souther Poverty Law Center notes, the central theme running through the books - Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, Ayn Rand's We The Living - is "the individual versus the totalitarian state."
Potok, who follows the far-right fringe, also picked up on the apparent roots of Loughner's suggestions that the government was engaging in mind control through grammar - an antigovernment extremist named David Wynn Miller, who ascribes nefarious intent to, among others, the U.S. Postal Service.
David Wynn Miller told Politico he agreed with Loughner's statement in a YouTube video that "the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar."
Loughner's claims in his videos: "I'm able to control every belief and religion by being the mind controller!"
Complete Coverage: Tragedy in Tucson
Miller's website is, to put it charitably, confusing. He appears to believe that by changing the punctuation of one's name - adding hyphens and colons, for example - a person can transform into a "prepositional phrase" not subject to taxation.
"David is an adjective, Wynn is an adjective, Miller is a pronoun," he writes. "Two adjectives are a condition of modification, opinion, presumption, which modifies the pronoun, pro means no on noun. So therefore, I'm not a fact. I'm a fiction."
Jared Loughner
/ Personal PhotoMiller's argument is associated with the far-right fringe "sovereign citizen" that has been used (unsuccessfully) in court by those seeking to avoid paying taxes.
It should be noted that while Miller said he believes Loughner has looked at his website, investigators examining Loughner's computer files and phone records have thus far found no evidence that he has a specific connection to any hate or fringe group.
The evidence also shows that Loughner rejected U.S. currency, apparently because it was not tied to gold or silver. He argued that he should not have to pay debts in currencies not backed by gold or silver and backed the creation of a new, alternate currency.
Opposition to currency not backed by silver or gold exists is particularly strong on the far-right antigovernment "Patriot" movement, as Potok notes; he writes that it is "linked to the core Patriot theory that the Federal Reserve is actually a private corporation run for the benefit of unnamed international bankers."
This photo obtained from the 2006 Mountain View High School yearbook shows Jared L. Loughner.
/ AP PhotoThere are also components of Loughner's belief system that one could tie to the far left - his decision to "favorite" a YouTube video of a burning American flag, the inclusion of the Communist Manifesto on his reading list, his possible adherence to the 9/11 "truther" movement. Conservatives looking to label Loughner as liberal have also pointed to Tweets from one apparent former friend who wrote he had once been "very liberal" and added, "he was leftwing when I knew him in hs & college, 3 years ago. So he may have changed, who knows."
Ultimately, it seems illegitimate to tie Loughner to the mainstream right or mainstream left, as his beliefs were well within the realm of the fringe. Indeed, Loughner appears to have simply been a disturbed individual who lacked a coherent political philosophy other than a deep-seated anti-government sentiment.
He seemingly harbored a grudge against Giffords dating back to 2007, when he did not like how he was treated at an event held by the congresswoman. The Wall Street Journal reports that Loughner apparently asked Giffords at the 2007 event, "How do you know words mean anything?" Giffords responded to Loughner in Spanish, prompting him to complain to a friend over how he had been treated. A note to Giffords was found in Loughner's apartment expressing hatred to the congresswoman and making threatening comments, according to MSNBC.
One friend, Bryce Tierney, told Mother Jones that Loughner saw Giffords as a "fake" unwilling to answer questions.
Loughner's mental state appears to have deteriorated significantly in recent years. "By the time he was 19 or 20, he was really fascinated with semantics and how the world is really nothing--illusion," Tierney said. The Washington Post printed emails from Lynda Sorenson, 52, a former community college classmate of Loughner from when Sorenson and Loughner were in class together.
"We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me," one reads. "He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon." Loughner, who was prone to nonsensical disruptions, was removed from the class within a month, and was suspended from the school in September of last year following five separate incidents.
"He appeared to be to me an emotional cripple or an emotional child," another former classmate told the Associated Press. "He lacked compassion, he lacked understanding and he lacked an ability to connect." (See an interview with a professor who called police on Loughner at left.)
Officials tell CBS News that Loughner represents the most difficult type of threat to detect: A loner with no criminal record and no history of mental health treatment who legally is able to obtain a weapon.
The one person who could provide the most clarity on his beliefs and motivations -- Loughner himself -- has thus far invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions from investigators.
Below: Watch CBS News' Bob Orr, Jan Crawford and Nancy Cordes on Washington Unplugged with the latest on the "Tragedy in Tuscon" and developing information on suspect Jared Loughner.
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I don't know what he believed, but having had the misfortune of being a victim of unethical involuntary experimentation, I can say that victims are pushed into groups with these kind of beliefs... apparently it is something along the lines of right wing conspiracy theories a la "John Birch Society." A lot of the fake victims also try to increase victim paranoia on the internet (as if a whole large group of people were trying to get at them) and others push toward the libertarian/republican camp. Unfortunately, *de-regulation* is not the solution to the problem so they would be of no use. But after I saw the Loughner situation, I wondered if the real victims aren't pushed into those delusional or libertarian camps on purpose? The similarities are very striking to me.
The mind control issue is something else. First, MK Ultra - whatever it was - ended years ago. Although on the internet it states that the MK stands for "Mind Kontrolle" I wonder to myself if it's not a reference to MK-801. Fascination with the brain, the effects of LSD on the brain, etc. couldn't simply have been to program a Manchurian Candidate assasin. That's the cover story, but what were they really studying?
The point of "mind control" would be to have someone be unwittingly controlled. Believing that one is "controlled" by outside forces is something typical in certain types of delusions. That being said, there is certainly coercion, bullying and nasty marketing tactics abound. There might be ways to affect the brain or bodily functions, trigger emotions, sensations, thoughts or even behaviors, but people are not programmable robots.
I think that it is not coincidental that the stories about MK Ultra are more "fabulous" than the information in the few documents in existence. The documents point to studies that are not as exotic as Manchurian Candidates and yet should be far more worrisome to the public. Like its predecessor, the current study appears to want to push people into delusions or false beliefs about what it is, what the goals are and who exactly is behind it. And for that we have the conspiracy theories on the internet, extremist and delusional political parties, trolls and liars.
That being said, I doubt that Loughner was a victim of a vile research study or "mind control." It appears that he was a victim of some kind of disorder that ended up costing the lives of innocent people and destroyed his own future.
Let's censor these DANGEROUS books! NO-- We must dig these authors up and put them on trial!
LOL... you people are bonkers.. ROFL
IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!!!!!
(who is the real wingnut here... Jared or you?)
The anti-social expression seen in recent political campaigns - especially on Fox News, and heard on many conservative talk radio shows, has constantly exposed him to unbalanced ideas which eventually gained control of him.
I am certain to say that he is one of many, who will terrorize this nation until the something can be done to restrain the news media from abusing first amendment rights with broadcast capacity in a medium without listener interaction who can oppose or contradict an anti-social or extremist viewpoint.
In the era of deregulated broadcasting, we have seen the nation of TV and Radio listeners polarized with divisive media. Such conditions didn't always exist. The younger generation is getting a pile of trash handed to them where sensible broadcast media policy is needed.
Wow, I'm surprised that the shooters Psychologist who has the education and training to identify whether a person is sane or not has the time to post on CBS.com /sarcasm
To give in to mob mentality and ignore facts is intellectual dishonesty ideological grandstanding
Your thought process worries me. What is the difference between crazy and insane? A person of sound mind can be exposed to numerous points, but you seem to be rather passionately aggressive to any "conservative" points of view. You spout "abusing the first amendment rights," but in the next breath you are advocating"regulation." Are suggesting that anyone that have opinions that differ from yours should be silenced? Is that freedom; is that a normal though process? TV nor radio cannot "gain control" over a person that is of sound mind! Mental programing/deprograming is possible, but not with TV and radio. Anyone born after 1970 and received a "public education" has had 12 years of liberal programing. Oh, and yes medical background, just retired after 30 years of medicine and I have a PhD. Thirty years, I do question myself at times. Why people, why did I not become a Vet?
What is sad to me is how quick the Left-Wing media is bring accusation to Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, and anything Republican.
On the killer, the fact that disturbs me is his ideas about our currency. When a person presents a Budget of $3.6 Trillion, when there is only $2.4 Trillion in Revenue for years, the Deficit increases from $450 Billion in 2009 to $1,400 Billion in 2010, and Congress PASSES the Budget, there is something to that point of the killer's thinking.
A. If you don't believe in the Death Penalty, then you are for the murderer getting life in prison paid for at the taxpayer's expense.
B. If you believe in the Death Penalty, then you need to realize that it costs more to execute than life in prison from Court appeals for a muderer, plus the 15 years of the appeals before the rightful, and thankfully the Penalty finally takes place.
C. If he is menally disturbed from eating twinkies, he get 8 years in prison, and then if Justice comes the murderer quickly commits suicide.
---------this must be why he could only afford to live with his parents! it is unfortunate they did not notice what a psychotic young man their son was, or they ignored his behavior hoping he would grow out of it....